$99 ARM-based Utilite gives the Raspberry Pi some competition

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Cheap, “dedicated” computers are all the rage these days, in large part thanks to the $25 and $35 Raspberry Pi models. Regardless of the very affordable price, the Raspberry Pi is underpowered for a computer, or even for a phone. So, slightly more expensive computers have been hitting the market, attempting to fill that space of a cheap computer, but with more power. The new entrant: CompuLab’s $99 ARM-based Utilite computer.

At $99, the base model of the Utilite is certainly cheap for the “high performance” computer it claims to be, but unlike the Raspberry Pi only having two slightly different models, CompuLab’s new box is configurable. Perhaps amusingly, the exact specs of the $99 base model that the company is touting are not yet known, but we do know that the box is can be upgraded into a tiny desktop powerhouse.

The Utilite measures in at 5.3×3.9×0.8 inches, which is small enough to attach to the back of your monitor if you’re low on space, or even duct-tape under your desk if you want to feel like you have a secret computer. The tricky part, at the moment at least, is the specs. Aside from the number of cores the Freescale i.MX6 Cortex-A9 processor can have (single, dual, or quad), CompuLab only appears to disclose what the maximum configuration can be. The Utilite can have the processor configured up to 1.2GHz, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, up to a 512GB mSATA SSD, up to a 128GB Micro-SD SDXC, and two display ports — HDMI 1.4 and DVI-D — up to 1920×1200 resolution at 60Hz. The specs of the GPU aren’t listed, but rather what is listed is what it supports: OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0, OpenVG 1.1 and OpenCL EP, multi-stream 1080p H.264, VC1, RV10, and DivX HW decoding. What seems static on the Utilite, at least, is Bluetooth 3.0, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, stereo line-out and in, four USB 2.0 ports, a micro-USB OTG connector, and two RS232 serial ports.

If configured up to the most powerful model, a 1.2GHz quad-core, 4GB of RAM computer with a 512GB SSD is no slouch, but only depending on the price, which isn’t divulged. That configuration will definitely not be the $99 model — a 128GB SSD alone goes for about $90 on Newegg. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that the $99 version will dispense with the SSD entirely, and simply stick with the 128GB SDXC slot, similar to the way the Raspberry Pi handles storage.

While the RasPi prefers to run operating systems like Raspbian, the Utilite is made to run Ubuntu or Android, so the $99 model — whatever the specs are like — can, in theory, become a fine desktop replacement. As always with these cheap PCs, the Utilite also makes a fine media server if you have the patience or know-how to set it up as one, rather than just buying a Roku for the same price. As for the obscured power of the GPU, Bitcoin miners will certainly be wondering what the Utilite is offering in that department, considering the computer outputs a maximum of 8W depending on the configuration.

For all the press cheap computers like the Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, and Utilite get, the true cost is always misconstrued. Yes, you can grab a Raspberry Pi Model B for $35, or the entry-level Utilite for $99, but you’ll still need everything else that connects to a computer, such as a monitor, keyboard, mouse, cables, and so on. If you’re using these little guys for projects and don’t need something as expensive as a monitor, you still need all the components that go into whatever you’re building. It’s sort of like when you rent an apartment — you have to lower your max price for the monthly rent because you still need to pay utilities and buy groceries every month. With the Utilite, though, the max price is misconstrued because we have no idea what the specs-per-price are like until the company starts taking orders in August.

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This to me perfectly exemplifies the difference in approach between ARM and x86 with respect to today’s market:

An ARM-powered SoC can be had for $400. Intel’s charging more for their chipset than the ARM SoC. That price of the i3 ULV alone is close to the Utilite box.

Intel needs to get their Atom architecture in order, and quickly. The more cheap ARM stuff that permeates the consumer market the less need their is for x86. For a tiny iOS/Android/Linux box, this has sufficient computing needs for the vast majority of the market.

This does show that an Intel Atom solution doesn’t have to be much more expensive than ARM.

BTW, what type of smokin’ graphics do you get with this $99 ARM computer? Does any OS support it at the hardware level?

pelov lov

Yes, Android+Linux would support it out of the box via kernel.

The netbooks Atoms only had sufficient graphics performance when coupled with the nVidia Ion chips, but by then the price was ~70-80$ with chipset included. That was one of the reasons why AMD did so well with the Brazos platform, although they arguably could have done even better had they not caught the middle/tail end of the netbook craze.

There’s more to this then raw computing power, though. If you think about how much compute power you need on an Android tablet or smartphone and that of a PC, there’s a drastic difference. Your average Android device doesn’t need 4GB of RAM at bare minimum and it won’t ever run complex software or play very demanding video games (though the GPUs on some newer SoCs are enormous), but that’s what you would expect an x86 machine to do.

I actually went to check out the new wave of Win8 Atom tablets because I needed one for work. After installing my software (AutoCAD), I quickly realized that there was no way in hell that the Clover Trail SoC would suffice for that task. It struggled in 2D, and 3D was completely out of the question. I own a ThinkPad that runs well in 2D, but for 3D I still need a discrete GPU. I own both an Android tablet and a smartphone and I wouldn’t expect either one to run that software, but then again I’m not paying a high price tag either.

For my needs, and I think for most people, they only need PCs for tasks like I described above – high end gaming, workstation applications need the power of x86. When an x86 chip can’t run the software I use then there’s no need for x86 at all. If you look at the past 2 years as well as the future trends in computing, it’s quite clear that the vast majority of the public doesn’t need it either.

jqpabc123

Yes, Android+Linux would support it out of the box via kernel.

What GPU is used? It really doesn’t say does it? Amazing that Android+Linux has full hardware support for every unknown, proprietary GPU in existence.

The author has some interesting benchmark performance data.
If you do not mind me pointing out – my 73 year old mother, nor any of her friends need 500+ MFLOPS of performance on anything; they aren’t really looking for GTA Version “X” or WOW or anything needing 3 times 1920×1600 video.

Marc Guillot

I don’t get the need to be so tiny, to me it would be perfect if it had a 3’5″ internal HDD bay.

Joe

This would serve great as an emergency backup cpu. I could simply preload it with all the software I need, store it at the Post Office, and pull it out at my time of need. E.g. Stolen laptop, natural disaster, etc.

Saby

It is quite interesting to think how this will evolve few years down the line. In
2 years, 64 bit ARM chips will be available (coretex A57 presumably) with Rogue
GPU from Imagination – which means 5-10x the CPU power and 10-20x the GPU power
of the A9 chip of this product. The chip will cost more, but probably $25
rather than $20 currently. 64bit CPU means there will be no limit on the RAM (vs 4GB today). A software/OS ecosystem will also start developing
around ARM chips for PCs whether it be on Linux/Ubuntu/Chromebook/Android/Windows
RT OS. We might actually see the resurgence of Unix in some form or the other, which will be a fantastic thing! I don’t see any reason why the smartphone (with a 5 inch screen) or better still, the TV can’t function as the screen for this computer in a couple of years… you just need a bluetooth keyboard with trackpad or/and mouse (if the mouse does continue to exist).

A far cry from the PC as we know it now, but better in perhaps every way and more importantly cheap as hell!! x86 and it’s ecosystem will die a slow death and maybe remain confined to specific applications/legacy systems.

jqpabc123

A far cry from the PC as we know it now, but better in perhaps every way …

One way they are not better (at least not yet) — stability and maturity.

In my experience, lockups and crashes are fairly common with these “cheap as hell” ARM systems. You probably don’t really care if all you’re doing is media consumption but it kinda becomes a show stopper once you start trying to build any sort of 24/7 system like a server.

The x86 market has maturity that ARM lacks.

Saby

Yes, of course, there is no comparison now. The wintel ecosystem wins every time and that’s why you have so many wintel PCs. But think of 2-4 yrs down the line. With cheap ARM 64 bit chips, lots of apps, unix based OS (and hence less trouble with viruses etc), more portable systems, and a slowly developing maturity (which will happen with time, and only with time unfortunately) it will be a very attractive system… How many more people in Africa, LatAm, India, China and other low income countries will be able to afford a PC (the new PC)… computers will be available to nearly every child on the planet and with elearning picking up and internet connectivity improving, that would really open up opportunities – a second industrial/intellectual revolution possibly…

GatzLoc

You need a laser keyboard and touch screen for most stuff really.

Or something like kinect which can be done with $20 hardware now.

I’d say wintel may be replaced by windows + amd going into the future but Idk about arm simply because people still like windows.

It’ll be a few years before this kicks off, and another few years i.e another upgrade cycle before the replacement begins.

Thing is, most people just buy phones now and only replace pcs when they completely fail.

With a larger population of tech people often times instead of a full replacement like before (dell days) now as hp is not propriatary (or lenonvo, acer, w.e) a simple mobo, hdd or w.e swap and the pc is good for another 4-5 years.

6-10 year upgrade cycles are the future of the pc.

Due to that, this might not even come to fruition, as if within the next decade there’s some kind of tech breakthrough allowing much better, and much newer stuff people may just flock to pc.

Like virtual reality or something.

jqpabc123

With cheap ARM 64 bit chips, lots of apps, unix based OS (and hence less trouble with viruses etc), more portable systems, and a slowly developing maturity (which will happen with time, and only with time unfortunately) it will be a very attractive system.

I don’t know if the maturity will ever happen.

Maturity is the result of standards. For better or worse, like it or not, Intel and MS set the standard for the PC. I don’t see anything similar happening in the ARM market.

ARM is aiming more at disposable computing. Every device is unique, runs a customized OS that probably won’t be updated more than once before it’s end of life. And then we’re off to the next unique product.

Marc Guillot

Yes, Intel & Microsoft had set the standard for the PC.

At what price ?, At the price of a monopoly (Wintel) that we have payed dearly for the last 30 years.

Time to say goodbye to the Wintel standard and the huge prices they have forced over us.

jqpabc123

At what price ?

Have you bothered to consider the price of replacing your smartphone and tablet every couple of years? Add it up. Chances are; if you’re like most people, you spend way more on this than you ever did on a PC.

Marc Guillot

I don’t know most people, but I certainly don’t.

I still have my first 200€ Tablet, and I change my smartphone every two years, at no price, changing to a different company (In Spain they offer high-end phones for 2 years contracts at 20€/month that I will anyway have to pay for a data plan).

jqpabc123

… and I change my smartphone every two years, at no price, changing to a different company

2 years at 20€/month — you could buy a decent PC for that much. And you’re paying this continuously. The PC I’m using cost me $600 (450€) about 5 years ago. You’re spending 1200€ for your smartphone in this same time frame.

The idea that people were paying “huge prices” for PCs just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

pelov lov

It does.

The average CPU costs ~$100-$300, and on a laptop that costs $500-$750. If you’ve ever complained at why laptop makers use such poor displays and shoddy build quality, well it’s because chip prices have stayed relatively stagnant. Laptop and Ultrabook profit margins are super low and rely very heavily on quantity to supplement for that fact.

In contrast, the average upper-tier smartphone costs <$200 to build but sells at $400-$600, and that's very heavily incentivized via contract.

Remember that not too long ago people used to replace their PCs every couple of years due to the dramatic increases in performance. The only thing we've seen from x86 the last 5 years are incremental 10% bumps at the same prices. Is it any wonder that the traditional PC space is in trouble?

chojin999

10% increase in 5 years WHAT ?

AMD CPUs maybe…

And Intel Core i7-3930K it’s 300% to 400% faster than an old Core2Quad Q9650.

What 10% increase ?

jqpabc123

@chojin999 Don’t interrupt their rhetoric with facts.

Whenever you can convince people to spend more money, that’s a significant marketing achievement. But when you can convince them to actually *like* spending more (because it costs less (even when it doesn’t) or because some other “bad” company isn’t involved), that is pure marketing genius.

This is where we are today. People willingly pay through the nose for smartphone technology … and they actually *like* it … apparently because Intel or MS isn’t the ones picking their pocket.

Mike From Spain

I use my phone plenty more than I use my own laptop (i use a laptop at work though). My laptop is wintel, and my mobile is Android. I would say, my mobile computing wants (rather than needs) are more than my laptop wants. My mobile phone is right now doing more for me than my laptop.

I am learning Linux because I got a Raspberry Pi that substitutes the uses I used to give another media center box that did not do a number of things I wanted it to do (Which in turn reduced the number of things I do with my laptop)

Each usage scenario is different, I don’t expect a non techy person to bother with the stuff I do in Linux out of curiosity, and a freelance designer is as of yet not better off ditching a laptop for an ARM $50-$100 dollar gadget. Also, getting a $1000 laptop just to play movies with it is overkill. And way too expensive for a lot of people who don’t have the option to get one.

Perhaps the thing with the new fad is that the perceived cost-benefit of digital obsolescence makes it more intriguing to spend money now on the latest $100 thing, and substitute it for next year’s state of the art ARM new thing which is substantially faster. You can’t do that with a laptop, at that kind of cost.

disqususer2

That Intel processor is a $600 chip and a 130 Watt toaster. No way its going to be found in a lightweight mobile ( Apple Air, Chromebook ) device.
But a faster CPU does not equate to a faster PC.
Hard drive speeds are the same, RAM … , NIC, person typing.
My company goes through a 3 year refresh – 10 years ago that was valid, 4 or 5 years ago … yes … today ..completely unneeded.
Servers – sure. workstations for worker bees .. no.

Mike From Spain

You say that with a 1st world mindset. Not everyone in Asia or Africa is replacing phones every year spending 100s of dollars. A $30-60 embedded ARM device running Linux can provide a first computing environment to a lot of people who can’t afford one otherwise.

Also , embedded computing fits a need. I recently replaced my laptop’s core2 duo CPU, and saw that just the CPU was rated for about 30 watt consumption. Compare that to the 2-3 watt that a whole Raspberry Pi uses. What I save running the Pi as a download/movie playing/spotify box can offset the cost of the embedded device itself over its lifetime. Maybe even in a year.

Mike From Spain

Windows & Microsoft built the PC standard in the course of about 10-15 years during the 80s and early 90s, when they still had fierce competition. The PC ecosystem was more diverse back then, in the origins of the industry.MS and Intel have been around for about 30 years, so more maturity is expected, of course.

ARM in PCs hasn’t been around for so long. I would expect that Linux and Android distros are some sort of standard in OS, and that the ARM instruction sets (there are also different instruction sets and software flavours in the Wintel world, it is not as uniform as you make it to be).

There is also a degree of compatibility both in the Windows and the Linux world, also of functional similarity between different flavours of OS’s. On my Pi, I can install Debian packages, and also from other distros, within a limit. I can run command line and XWindows systems with a very similar experience in an ARM based distro or in an x86 distro. You can also install and run apps designed for Windows XP on Windows 7, within reason, and the functional similarities between flavours of Windows make them somewhat similar experiences, but you cannot defend wintel and diss ARM-Linux because of this.

Marc Guillot

AMD Cortex-A57 cores (Seattle) are expected to have next year the very same performance per core than AMD Jaguar x86 cores.

I think that next year ARM products will be good enough for 99% desktop users. Welcome a new era of dirty-cheap hardware (it was about time to end Intel’s monopoly).

chojin999

With huge lack of software. Unless re-compiling open-source on a Linux installation could be considered a good thing…

It might work for few people, some businesses for limited specific use, but there is no way that those are going to replace Intel and AMD x86/x64 CPUs running Windows OSes nor Mac with OSX.

Marc Guillot

Huge lack of software ?, every single Unix application has been coded for cross-compilation since the beginning, they will run with no problem under ARM.

There is an strong rumor that Apple will port OSX to ARM when they have 64bit SoCs (a few months from now). Even Windows applications could be easily compiled to ARM (Microsoft runs desktop applications like MS Office on Windows RT).

Think on the emerging markets. ARM system + Ubuntu + LibreOffice + Firefox + … will work for a lot of people that decide to drop the huge monopolistic taxes of Intel CPUs and Microsoft software.

chojin999

No, that’s not going to happen.

Just like Linux never got even 10% of the desktop worldwide market share.

Marc Guillot

Yes, sales of x86 PC’s and MS Windows licenses are skyrocketing, while ARM devices are plummeting.

I guess market proves you right …. Bazinga !!.

Mike From Spain

I started moving into Linux because I have an ARM device… it is way more mature now than it was, really. And the community is amazing.

disqususer2

I work in healthcare, 5000+ employees at my company, 4000 or so at our partner located on same campus.
With uber-rare exception people pick applications over hardware.
With the exception of core UCS/AIX boxes EVERYONE could use a thin device. IT was true 10 years ago and continues to be true.
Word processing, web surfing, spreadsheet analysis .. all work great in 2GB @ 1Ghz w/dual cores. OS is highly over-rated.

Yakov G

It’s baffling how even tech blogs confuse RP with some of the shelf PC. It’s a developer hacker platform. It’s not a desktop. It is an arduino on steroids. Please, stop comparing every low cost arm device to an RP. I have a quad core A9 SOC which runs ubuntu — and that’s all it does. And I have 2 RPs which are interfaced with custom expansion boards which control relays in my home automation system. There is a difference, the expansion pin headers on the Pi make it what it is.

multilis

Rasperry Pi has *lots* of competition. The challenge is sometimes getting Linux rather than Android to work.

Examples: MK802, MK808, GK802, etc, can be bought now from ebay, geekbuying.com, etc.

Advantage of this new computer is more upgradable and more ports. With 2 ethernet ports it becomes very easy to make a router/firewall.

博硕 赵

我想拥有一台replace my computer!

博硕 赵

我想拥有一台replace my computer!

Iam Qlue

This doesn’t compare in any way to a Raspberry Pi as the Raspberry Pi was always intended to be a kind of educational toy. Whereas, this Utilite is clearly intended as a low cost PC replacement. The Raspberry Pi is pretty much the only computer of it’s type and I don’t see that there is much chance of anything similar coming to market anytime soon. :)